Many people will tell you that Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) has had a huge influence on singers but does he still have relevance today? Rick Michel thinks so.

New York-born Michel brings his Sinatra Forever show to the Winspear on Monday, and it’s true, the veteran impressionist-comedian-singer has an uncanny vocal resemblance to the “chairman of the board”. Michel can take on dozens of voices but this show is dedicated to the songs that made Sinatra famous.

His musical director Greg Bosler “lifted” authentic arrangements from the original recordings and tailored them to a seven-piece backing band. Then they added a few popular standards in a style Sinatra might have used. A few minutes with Sinatra’s “rat-pack” buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. are also worked into the show.

Michel answered a few questions recently in a phone interview from Reno, Nev.

Q: You have a multifaceted career, but how did you get started in show business?

A: If you really look to the roots of it, I have family photos from 1961 of myself in flannel pajamas doing impressions of Stan Laurel from Laurel & Hardy. I was just seven years old. I started my career in California at comedy clubs like the Comedy Store in La Hoya, where I got in on the open mic night back in the 1970s, so I got to rub shoulders with people like Robin Williams and Cheech & Chong. I did impersonations, and I did Hollywood improvs as well. It was a lot of fun. My first professional job was doing one of the gang members in a touring show of Grease. I broke into Las Vegas in 1981. I was doing Sinatra back then, working with a 17-piece big band and that’s when I really started my singing career.

Q: Is the work of an impressionist hard to do? Is there a gift for it?

A: You know it is a God-given gift. I’m self-taught, though I did take some drama classes and I actually did an episode of Baywatch where I did 16 voices in some scenes with Pamela Anderson.

Q: You must have a special talent for listening and observing?

A: Yes. As a teenager I was a class clown who spent more time in the principal’s office than I did in the classroom. I asked my mother who she’d like me to do an impression of and she suggested Frank Sinatra. I knew who he was. So I went down into the basement and got an old LP, Songs For Swinging Lovers with Nelson Riddle’s Orchestra, and I copied the first track You Make Me Feel So Young to my reel-to-reel tape deck and studied it. Thirty days later I was getting the phrasing, the timbre and I still do that in my show.

Q: What was your concept for the Sinatra Forever show?

A: I always say, it’s not an impersonation but an interpretation. I sound like him but I don’t try to look like him. There’s no one who can become Frank Sinatra. So it’s a salute to Frank Sinatra. I do wear a homage to him, an orange handkerchief, like he always used to wear, but I’m paying tribute to probably the greatest American pop singer of all time. Remember, this guy recorded more songs than Elvis and The Beatles put together, over 1,300 songs, and he always acknowledged the songwriters and arrangers. This guy really created the American songbook through his career, all these amazing hits from the 1930s onwards right through to his 80th birthday in 1995, which was the last time I saw him. The first time was in 1983.

Q:Why should anyone under the age of 50 have an interest in Sinatra’s music?

A: No offense to anyone else but it’s nice to hear words you can understand. When he sang a song you felt the emotion, you heard the words and knew what the lyricist was trying to say. He did probably the most intricate interpretations of any singer ever. You get an education on sustaining the notes, on breathing. These are incredible arrangements of live music. I do songs like Come Fly With Me, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Summer Wind, and of course New York, New York and My Way.

Q:Does Sinatra’s music have a future with anyone under 50?

A: When I do this show I see kids who are teenagers and they dress up with a fedora and jackets and skinny ties. He’s still crossing over to different age and ethnic demographics, girls and guys, to people who really appreciate the music.

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